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Beagle Boys (1987)
The Beagle Boys are a group of characters from the Scrooge McDuck universe, loosely based on the popular image of Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang. They are a gang of criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge McDuck and were created by Carl Barks. Their introduction and first appearance was in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #134. In more recent productions such as DuckTales and The Three Musketeers, the Beagle Boys appear as henchmen for Flintheart Glomgold or Pete. In the comics, the individual Beagle Boys are referred to by their prison numbers, indicated on the tags seen on the chests of their distinctive red shirts (which appeared as orange in the comics). The three most common numbers are 176-167, 176-671, and 176-761. In fact, no digits other than one, six, or seven appeared on their prison ID tags. Carl Barks used to include the words "Beagle Boys Inc" on their shirts under their numbers, which was later deleted. In later years, they appeared in the comics as a trio (some combination of the most common numbers with 671-176, 716-617 and 176-176), plus cousins and other relatives of various talents as spin-off characters. They live in a small tumbledown hide-out in Duckburg; in 1980s American-produced stories, their pet cat Ratty often lived there as well. The Beagle Boys have lots of relatives who count each other as brothers and cousins: apart from Ma Beagle there are the Beagle Brats (sons or nephews), the Beagle Babes (older generation which happens to be a trio of female cousins and a younger generation which happens to be their daughters or nieces) and their grandfather Blackheart Beagle. The brains of the Beagle clan is Intellectual-176 (or I-176) who wears a mortar-board cap and glasses over his black mask. Grandma & Grandpa Beagle have appeared in the strips at various times. According to Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge first met The Beagle Boys in his Mississippi riverboat days. Those Beagle Boys included Blackheart Beagle and his three unnamed sons. Scrooge first met the modern Beagle Boys during Christmas 1947, which was when he first met his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and met his nephew Donald for the second time. Since then, the Beagle Boys have been a constant threat to Scrooge's huge money bin. Sometimes they team up with other villains such as Magica De Spell, Black Pete, Mad Madam Mim, or hire out their services to Flintheart Glomgold, Ollie Eiderduck or John Rockerduck. During these occasions, it should be noted, they continue to operate out of their own interests rather than their employers. Sometimes, they antagonize Super Goof, Mickey Mouse, or some other characters from Walt Disney's comic books. Although the characters are obviously based on dogs, they in no way resemble the actual beagle breed. The Italian ska band Banda Bassotti takes its name from the Italian name of the gang. Appearances DuckTales On DuckTales, the Beagle Boys were given names and different personalities. The usual character combination is Bigtime, Burger, and Bouncer, and sometimes Baggy or Babyface, Bebop, and Bankjob. Other known names are Bomber and Blitzkrieg. Their leader is usually Bigtime, Bankjob, or their mother, Ma Beagle. In other words, the letter B is the first initial of all Beagle Boys' handles except Megabyte, the brains of the bunch. Like the comics, these Beagles teamed up with Scrooge McDuck's other enemies on occasion most notably Magica De Spell and Flintheart Glomgold. An interesting note regarding Ma Beagle is: whenever she is involved, she is often the only Beagle to escape successfully. Bonkers A Beagle Boy made a cameo appearance in the episode "The 29th Page". Quack Pack A Beagle Boy made a special cameo in the episode "Nosy Neighbors". Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas An unnamed Beagle was seen during the "A Very Goofy Christmas" segment as a cameo role. In the middle of the short, a Beagle was seen robbing Pete's house and mistaken for Santa Claus by Goofy and Max until the police arrived. Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers In the direct-to-video film Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers, three Beagle Boys make an appearance working as minions for Captain Pete. These three Beagle Boys are different from previous incarnations as they have grayish skin, British accents and wear hoods. Two of the Beagle Boys are tall and the third one is rather short. The boys are first seen at Princess Minnie's palace preparing to murder her by dropping a safe onto her. Their attempt fails, and they run off to tell their boss, who is revealed to be Pete, the captain of the musketeers. Pete is outraged by the Beagle Boys as the plan was not to murder the princess but to kidnap her only. The boys are then banished to a pit as punishment while the pit is actually adequate. Later on, by orders of Minnie, Pete assigns three janitors, Mickey, Donald and Goofy, to protect her as musketeers. Pete believing they'll do a terrible job, orders the Beagle Boys to kidnap Minnie with high hopes of success. However, upon the Beagles return, Pete realizes the three are better musketeers than he thought and advises a plan to pick them off one by one. Pete and Clarabelle go after Mickey and Goofy respectively, while the Beagles lure Donald into Pete's lair to be decapitated. Time restrictions force Pete's plan to take place at the grand opera where Mickey, Donald and Goofy reveal to survive their planned deaths and battle the Beagles. Pete interferes and seemingly murders Donald and Goofy along with the Beagles. Pete feels no remorse for the loss of his henchmen and continues with his plans. The Beagles are not seen or mentioned again in the film after that, but in the comic book adaptation, they are shown being arrested along with Pete. Disney Parks During the time of DuckTales and the popular Disney Afternoon block, the Beagles occasionally appeared as meet-and-greet characters, as well as taking part in some special promotional material involving other park characters. However, as of 2011, the Beagles are not seen in the parks. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance The Beagle Boys from The Three Musketeers also appear in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance in the world, Country of the Musketeers where, like in the film, they work as henchmen for Pete. DuckTales Beagles There were many Beagle Boys on DuckTales, but the most common seven consisted of: Category:Ducktales Category:Ducktales characters